Fire destroys three boats at Chesterfield Township marina

MITCH HOTTS

Published 12:00 am, Sunday, October 21, 2012

Three boats at a Chesterfield Township marina were destroyed and another one damaged Sunday afternoon when one of the owners accidentally started a fire with a torch while shrinkwrapping his boat for the season, according to fire officials.

Fire crews were called to Anchor Bay Marina on Jefferson Avenue at Riverpoint about 1 p.m. after they received a call about a boat on fire on the fenced-in marina grounds, said fire Capt. Richard Schroeder. When they arrived, firefighters found the boats ablaze and went to work. All of the boats appeared to be 34 feet in length.

"You've got gasoline and all the fiberglass from the boat, so once it starts burning, it gets extremely black and hard to see what you're doing, and with the fuel, it's almost a disaster waiting to happen. You could get an explosion," Schroeder said.

With black smoke making visibility difficult, Chesterfield firefighters used a pair of ladder trucks to get above the scene and sprayed water to clear the smoke out and then worked to extinguish the fires.

It took fire crews close to an hour to completely put out the flames.

In addition, fuel leaking from the boat where the fire originated began leaking. The U.S. Coast Guard was notified to come in and determine if any of the gasoline seeped into Lake St. Clair, since the lake is so close to the marina.

Chesterfield command officers requested assistance from the fire department at nearby Selfridge Air National Guard Base to provide about 200 gallons of foam that was used to smother and soak up the fuel on the ground, officials said.

Schroeder said while the cause of the fire remains under investigation, witnesses said the boat owner was working to prepare the vessel for the winter in a process known as shrinkwrapping.

The process involves using shrinkwrap, which is made up of polymer plastic film, to cover and protect the boat from the elements. Once the shrinkwrap is applied, it is heated to shrink and provide a coating for the boat while it is in storage over the winter.

It appears the owner was using a torch to heat the wrap, Schroeder said.

"When you shrinkwrap a boat, they heat the plastic and it melts down with a big torch," he said. "If he got too close to something, it could spark a fire or if something was in there, it could have spread the fire."

The torch user did not do anything illegal and the incident will be labeled as accidental, according to Schroeder.

No injuries were reported.

Chesterfield Township police had to shut Jefferson at Riverpoint, which is near Sugarbush Road, to motorists for more than an hour because fire crews had to stretch a hose across the road to access water. The road was re-opened sometime after 2:30 p.m.